louise on the left (coast)

I don't know whether to laugh or cry, but last month KCET, Los Angeles' former affiliate for PBS, dumped decent educational programming to replay really, really old, campy re-runs of the same crap we laughed at in the 1970s. Amazingly, here's what's on my former PBS station right now: January 2, 2011: Lidsville   (TV Series 1971–1973) A  '70s show about a boy who is trapped inside what appears to be a bad acid trip in Burbank where scary hats yell and jump about and sing loudly at you about nothing remotely sensible. There's Weenie the Genie (aka,  Billie Hayes , who was Witchiepoo on H.R. Pufnstuf) who, I am willing to bet, was an inspiration for Pee Wee Herman's "Jambi."  Just a hunch. The lead boy, "Mark," is played by  Butch Patrick , who formerly played Eddie Munster. But, the show also features a very ugly, green-headed  Charles Nelson Reilly  who mostly chuckles loudly and yells really

I had no idea the internet was quite this cool, but were you aware that you can now watch an amazing production of King Lear by The Royal Shakespeare Company starring Ian McKellen entirely online? For free? In it's entirety ? I thought people had to fly to England for this, or fork over a chunk of money to rent this kind of thing, but, no, apparently, you can just watch it from anywhere you get internet access! Sorry, but I'm still fairly old school, so I find this pretty exciting. I also think it's something Will would have approved of. In fact, I think Mr. WS would have had a great deal of fun with Youtube (I know I am). I don't care who you are, there's no longer any excuse not to take advantage of this opportunity and get to know William Shakespeare the way we are meant to. I don't care if you never saw a play in your life, this is a chance to really understand why Shakespeare is the man. -- Enjoy. The Royal Shakespeare Company presents King Lear ,